December 26, 2015

Mike Fernandez, The Miami Herald

These past few days, from the reaction of some who read what I and other Cuban Americans said in a full-page ad in the Miami Herald about our visit to the island, I’ve learned even more about the sort of lifelong pain that is almost impossible to remove from many souls. I also have been reminded that kindness and forgiveness can heal and help.

Fifty-one years ago, with my father next to me, I stood near an airport runway in Mexico City. I was there to help as our family had been helped just six months earlier.

On Christmas Eve 1964 — at that same spot we were standing, just about the same time of night — our family of four had arrived in Mexico City. A man at the fence awaited for people like us — Mami, Papi, my sister, Pilar, and me, age 12. He told us, “My name is Eugenio. I will take you to a better place.”...